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garageHEART - Nissan Fairlady Z (z32)

The Story

Fairlady's have become fairly common "practice" for the garageHEART team. We have worked on older Z's and a z32 before. How on earth do we say no to a restoration of such a beautiful car? Well this one was not for sale, I went to look at another kit and there was this red thing , body line's that unmistakably belong to a Fairlady Z, in true gH hunting style I popped the question and as the story goes...the rest is history.

Exactly why I love this chassis, due to it's rich history and with that in mind we thought long and hard on what to do with this gem. We have built the Fujimi Just Tuning z32 before, that had a modest mid 90's era street style

This one is going to be the first car being built in garageHEART's new building, we now have more space (sadly projects have piled up so the space is nothing to brag about) and more experience.

Direction

The last z32 we built was pretty modest, as much as gH does not do current trends, we simply can not ignore what is happening around the world. The whole diffuser and wild "time attack" look is certainly brutal (in a good way) and it is practical.

With that in mind we going to create a weekend warrior where the owner can drive his car to and from the track and still get him/her great lap times and with a flick of some sort of electronic damping force controller he/she can get home in comfort (somewhat).

As for engine, we not sure to throw in the highly tune-able RB/ or keep the VG30DETT and add some go fast bits to it. When this Fairlady is stripped down we will hopefully know what engine will be going in.

The Build

(above) As you can see, it has surely been neglected.

(above) Suspension is lob-sided and bonnet/hood does not close properly. hmmm did we buy a lemon?

(above) z32 looking all sad, won't be long (well depends how long a piece of string is)

(above) To our surprise the aircon still worked haha.

(above) This will be home for a while...

(above) Real work started at this point, well have to start somewhere and we started by removing the wheels.

(above) The iconic 300zx/Fairlady Z wheels were removed. Tyres/tires had plenty thread on but they were starting to crack due to standing. Does not matter as we wont be needing them anymore.
(above) This spider lived on the old gH premises, I found her in her final resting place. She will be missed.
(above) Sub-frame removed as well as exhaust system...
(above) After all the auxiliary items were removed the engine was free to come out. We removed it from the bottom, seemed the easiest.

We back with some updates, after the engine was removed and interior stripped we could think clearly as we now had a blank canvas. As mentioned before we turning this into a time attack inspired car that can be driven on street.

Our guys are use to the odd splitter here and there , mainly fitting readily available aero packages. For this we have to scratch build most of the aero parts. It has been a huge pleasure to see this Z32 go from stock looking to something track ready by a few little add-on's.

Lets jump into what you have come for, Pictures...

(above) All stripped...
(above) Unlike the Fujimi kit where the spoilers are separate pieces, Tamiya made it slightly harder to remove the wing. So out came the grinder and we went mad. It was filled and smoothed out afterwards.
(above) As you all can remember we had some fitment issues with the hood/bonnet (check first post). After checking the body for straightness we figured it was the hood/bonnet that was not sitting properly.
(above) Well while it was off we decided to cut it up, to let all the warm air out of the engine bay. The grinder was working over time.
(above) And there is now a huge gaping hole, there was simply no turning back now.
(above) Then we sorted out the fitment issue and i tried capturing how well it fits now.
(above) I tried keeping the wheels a secret, but we thought about it... lets show the wheels in this bad condition and once it has been refurbished we can look back and see the difference. So this is the chosen wheel, a set of SSR mk2-R wrapped in Advan ao52's. Also seen here is the canyard and lower diffuser without attachment, and if you look at the rear you can see the holes closed up where the old spoiler was.
(above) Now this is where gH might get negative points, we have not gone for the over the top blade wing and we kept it with a one piece high spoiler, it is a z32 spoiler. Check in again in the week to see what gH has to done to this wing , then you can fully judge us.
(above) And that is how it currently stands... canyard attachment added.

Below are random snaps...

The front diffuser's shape needs to be corrected slightly as it does not flow with the front of the car. Next we move onto the rear diffuser and wing modification. Once all this is done the sides will get the same treatment and then we move onto the engine bay and interior to get it ready for spray.

gH has been up to mischief with this Fairlady. We Finishing up the aero, probably another hour of work then it will be ready for paint etc.

(above) Took a walk up to capture this picture... side aero made and fitted.
(above) Taking shape slowly.
(above) Pulling it out proved to be a mission due to ride height...
(above) small adjustment of the side aero to be done...
(above) Onto the engine bay... We still not sure if we should fit an RB engine or modify the current one.

Thank You all for checking out this build.
All comments and criticism highly welcomedgarageHEART

The last installment our Z32 was ready to be stripped down and get some much-needed bodywork in order to get some colour on it.
I do have one apology to make, I am using a phone to take pictures and it really does not showcase the colour nor the shine properly.
But on the bright side, it suits the style of garageHEART.

So with the wild aero, we needed to choose a colour to match, a nightmare to capture this colour and once I have time I will take it
outside and use natural light and see if I can get the full depth of it.

anyway enough talking, let us check out what this Fairlady looks like now...

(above) a fresh coat of paint, at this point I was not sure if we chose the right colour

(above) the interior was fitted with new carpets, I was thinking of removing carpets but some comfort needs to be kept

(above) momo steering wheel was chosen as it suits the 90's dash.

and then in true garageHEART style, disaster struck. Somehow the paint was not hard enough to touch and it left some very nasty fingerprint marks. I sat polishing it out for a few hours, there are
no pictures of this as I was truly upset and was ready to park this in the corner of the workshop and forget about it. As always giving up is not our first nor last option and we kept on working on this Fairlady.

(above) in this picture, you can see the interior is completed along with 90 percent of the body. After the mishap I just
got stuck into it and hardly took any progress snaps, I actually did not want to post it up. Overall I am
proud of how it turned out after all the issues.

(above) speaking about missing bay parts... here is one part that will need to go in. We have fitted forged internals
and prepared this engine to handle more boost. All honesty just painted valve covers hehe.

(above) sun was starting to set, decided to get the z32 back in and work through the evening...

(above) Best work comes in the still of the night...

(above) garageHEART pushed through the night to get the fairlady going.

(above) not sure if its clear but the engine is fitted, needs to come out again as the custom plumbing for fmic
(front mount intercooler) is not fitting properly.

(above) random image of other projects being prepared for when the Fairlady leaves garageHEART.

Thank You all in Anticipation for looking, commenting and/or criticising